New Brockton athletic director is longtime teacher, coach

Peter Caruso joined the Brockton Public School system in 1977 and coached high school football for 30 years.

Staff Reporter

BROCKTON- Sports have been at the center of Peter Caruso’s life for decades. Growing up on the north side of Brockton, Caruso played in the streets, in the parks and in school.

At Xaverian High School, he played baseball and football; at Northeastern University, he was on the baseball team for four years.

Then, for 37 years, Caruso taught physical education in Brockton; he also coached football and a half a dozen other sports during his years in the school system.

“It was ingrained in me from Little League up,” he said. “Something kept dragging me back to this.”

As Caruso begins his first year as Brockton High’s newest athletic director, he will lean on more than just his sports experience.

Caruso was hired this month to replace Bill Devin, who retired in July after nearly 40 years with Brockton public schools. Since 2008, Caruso has been Brockton’s coordinator of physical education for grades pre-kindergarten through Grade 8 and director of middle school athletics.

He has also managed Brockton’s annual Special Olympics School Day Games and the Get Ready Summer Sports Program. Both are events involving hundreds of students, requiring organizational skills that verge on obsessive compulsive disorder, Caruso said.

“I really enjoyed making an impact on students’ lives,” he said.

The athletic director is responsible for coordinating all sports at Brockton High School, the largest public high school in the state with 4,300 students. The sports programs includes 18 teams and more than 70 coaches and staff. It is a 12-month position.

The Brockton Education Association entry salary range for the job is $121,660.

Caruso was recommended to Superintendent Kathleen Smith by Brockton High School Principal Sharon Wolder and a panel of other administrators.

He will jump right into his new job as fall tryouts start Monday.

Among Caruso’s biggest challenges will be finding recreation space outside the school system. The city has been improving its parks, but Caruso said many still need work.

“We’re at the mercy of using local facilities,” he said.

Another difficulty will be dealing with the loss of middle school sports, eliminated for budgetary reasons this year. The loss will affect students whose families cannot afford private programs and the high school feeder system.

“We were their only exposure and outlet,” Caruso said. “It will affect the program eventually.”

Helping him along the way will be Caruso’s family.

His two children are BHS athletes – his daughter is a senior who signed with Brown University to play soccer, his son is a three-sport sophomore – who offer him an insider’s perspective on the school’s sports system.

“They keep me grounded,” Caruso said.

Then there is Caruso’s wife, Myrlene, a Haitian native who teaches language at Kennedy Elementary School.